


How Now, Spirit! Whither Wander You?

by take_liberties



Category: Everything Has Changed - Taylor Swift/Ed Sheeran (Music Video)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 21:50:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1098976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/take_liberties/pseuds/take_liberties
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thanks to L for the brainstorming, the beta, and the title idea! xoxo</p>
    </blockquote>





	How Now, Spirit! Whither Wander You?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tvconnoisseur](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tvconnoisseur/gifts).



> Thanks to L for the brainstorming, the beta, and the title idea! xoxo

When she sits next to him on the bus seat, he says nothing, sips his coffee, and returns to his comics. He’s reading a deadpan joke made by a sardonic housecat, when she finally turns to him and says “Good morning.” 

He looks up from his paper and says, “So you can see me.”

~~

They don’t interact again right away. 

He watches her carefully place a ring of raspberries around a meringue and worries that she might leave him soon. She watches him make a heaping disaster out of the lovely promise of an unfrosted cookie and wonders if he’ll accomplish anything at all.

~~

They end up seated next to each other while the class of children around them watches a film reel. A tall, triangular tower appears on the screen. It’s made of wrought iron, there’s lots of dark metal and sharp corners, but it seems delicate in spite of that, maybe… almost romantic.

“I think I’ve been there,” she murmurs, almost by accident.

He looks over at her, equally surprised to hear her speak and to hear the sentiment itself. 

“So have I,” he answers. “I think I liked it there.”

“I loved it.” She answers him, unable to tear her eyes away from the image. After a few more seconds of rapt attention to the screen she whispers to him, “Come with me.” They duck out of the room and head off to see what the day can tell them about themselves.

~~

They take their final bows to no one in particular. He removes his helmet, she her sash, and they agree to discuss the play over lunch. He leads the way to the top of the jungle gym, balances on the bars while he helps her up. 

Their sandwiches unwrapped, they discuss:

“I’m not a spaceman or a knight. Nothing with a helmet,” he tells her.

“I don’t think I’m a real princess, but it felt right somehow. I’m still not sure,” she ponders. They each take a bite of their sandwiches, and lapse into quiet thought.

~~

“I played guitar before this.” He says assuredly. They’ve tried out several instruments and nothing felt right until he picked up the guitar and tucked it under his arm. She sat across from him, empty-handed. She’d given up on music class, unsure if there was anything for her in a place that chaotic. 

He strums a few times, “mmmm gonna pick up the pieces” he half-hums to her, missing a chord at the end. She instantly reaches over and shifts his fingers into the correct position. A light dawns on her face.

“Guitar!” She beams.

~~

“I was never one for sport,” he says, barely getting his arms the whole way round a soccer ball. 

“Yes, neither was I.” She pulls him away to the edge of the field where they won’t be interrupted by the game, and stands a little awkwardly. 

“Wait. Stand there,” he instructs her, pointing to the mats that have appeared for them there. “I learned this once. Close your eyes, stand with your toes together, heels slightly apart. Bring your palms together in front of your chest, and breathe.”

She breathes in, deeply and feels it all the way down to the bottom of her toes. She exhales and then they're bending in unison, stretching their arms outward and lifting up their faces to the sky.

~~

The markers are slippery in their warm hands. He thought maybe drawing on themselves would help. His skin feels blank, he thinks. 

She goes for it haphazardly, drawing random lines and scribbling all over but doesn’t accomplish anything. Then she puts the red marker to her lips, stains her lips bright and feels a familiar surge. She plants her lips to the mirror and admires the print she leaves there. 

“Red lips,” she says. “That’s right.”

His face is nearly covered in marker and still nothing. The beard he drew wasn’t it.

“My skin’s still not right,” he worries.

~~

“I think,” he scrunches up his face trying to remember, “No, I know. It went right here.” He bares his bicep to her. “I think it went all over too, but we can start here.”

“A dragon on your bicep?” She’s trying to be polite and not show her distaste, but her nose wrinkles a little anyway. 

“Yes,” he’s unfazed by her reaction, doesn’t seem to care if she likes it or not. “It’s ferocious, and it winds down here and all around.”

“I’ll try to make it look good,” she promises, winding up the little cobbled together gun that she’ll draw it on with. He had insisted that it make a steady buzzing noise, the closer to real it was, the closer they’d be to going home. He pulls up his sleeve a little higher and she goes to work.

~~

“They definitely look like this.” She puts the finishing touches on the little mockup she’s made and inserts a pair of headphones into the side. “You put this in your ear, and we can talk to each other, even if we’re half a world away. I’ve been to Australia.”

“Let’s practice!” He grabs his and runs outside to test it out. He ends up at a picnic table, looking at the drawing of her in his hands and knows that he’s done this before. He’s seen her before, here, in his palms and standing in front of him. He knows her.

~~

She clutches two green leaves plucked from a tree, holding them up to the light. 

“These leaves are different shapes, but look how the veins match,” she notes to him. He peers over her shoulder, squinting into the sun to see the detail shining through the leaves.

“The main ones all line up exactly,” he says. “Look,” he reaches up and bends the leaves in half along their main stem, then folds down another piece where the vessels all run the same way. They keep folding the leaves this way along their common veins until each leaf fully envelops the other. 

~~

They dance together. A disco ball illuminates the room around them, and the speckled light against the rubbered floor, cinder block walls, plastic bleachers fades out this world and reminds them of where they came from, and soon enough they will be ready to return. 

“I don’t think we’ve done this before,” she says.

“I always wanted to,” he admits.

She nods quietly, circling her arms more closely around his neck.

“Ready?” She asks, after a few more quiet moments.

“Let’s go.”

They run back out of the gym, past all the day’s memories, and into the outstretched arms that await them.


End file.
